Network Analysis and Visualization for
Understanding Social Computing
Ben Shneiderman
ben@cs.umd.edu
Founding Director (1983-2000), Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Member, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
(Copyright 2009 Ben Shneiderman)
Interdisciplinary research community
- Computer Science & Info Studies
- Psych, Socio, Poli Sci & MITH
(www.cs.umd.edu/hcil)
Design Issues
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Input devices & strategies
• Keyboards, pointing devices, voice
• Direct manipulation
• Menus, forms, commands
Output devices & formats
• Screens, windows, color, sound
• Text, tables, graphics
• Instructions, messages, help
Collaboration & Social Media
Help, tutorials, training
• Visualization
Search
www.awl.com/DTUI
Fifth Edition: March 2009
Using Vision to Think
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Visual bandwidth is enormous
• Human perceptual skills are remarkable
• Trend, cluster, gap, outlier...
• Color, size, shape, proximity...
• Human image storage is fast and vast
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Opportunities
• Spatial layouts & coordination
• Information visualization
• Scientific visualization & simulation
• Telepresence & augmented reality
• Virtual environments
100M-pixels & more
Large displays
for single users
infovis.cs.vt.edu/gigapixel
100M-pixels & more
1M-pixels & less
Small mobile devices
Treemap: Smartmoney MarketMap
www.smartmoney.com/marketmap
Market falls steeply Feb 27, 2007, with one exception
Treemap: Supply Chain
www.hivegroup.com
Treemap: NY Times – Car&Truck Sales
www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap/
Information Visualization: Mantra
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Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
Overview, zoom & filter, details-on-demand
SciViz .
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1-D Linear
2-D Map
3-D World
Document Lens, SeeSoft, Info Mural
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Multi-Var
Temporal
Tree
Network
Spotfire, Tableau, GGobi, TableLens, ParCoords,
InfoViz
Information Visualization: Data Types
GIS, ArcView, PageMaker, Medical imagery
CAD, Medical, Molecules, Architecture
LifeLines, TimeSearcher, Palantir, DataMontage
Cone/Cam/Hyperbolic, SpaceTree, Treemap
Pajek, JUNG, UCINet, SocialAction, NodeXL
Social Computing Conference
wordle.net
Social Computing Conference
wordle.net
Wikipedia
Social Computing: Transformative Movement
• Restructuring
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Economies, political structures, social systems
Scientific disciplines & methods
Academic curricula & teaching strategies
Government agendas
Social Computing: Transformative Movement
• Restructuring
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Economies, political structures, social systems
Scientific disciplines & methods
Academic curricula & teaching strategies
Government agendas
• Crime, terrrorism, racial hatred,
dictatorships
Can Computing Evolve?
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Web Science
• Social Computing/Social Informatics
• Information: I-Schools
• Business: B-Schools
• Design:
D-Schools
• Social Physics (Auguste Comte, 1830)
• Social Sciences
• Complexity, Chaos & Network Theory
Vision: Social Computing
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Health, energy, education, business innovation
• Disaster response, community safety
• Environmental awareness, biodiversity
2) Develop Theories of Social Computing
• How do networks evolve? Can we predict areas of
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growth, stability, decline, infections, disruptions?
Can we guide intervention to stop terrorists,
slow epidemics, increase sales, promote health?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
Vision: Social Computing
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Health, energy, education, business innovation
• Disaster response, community safety
• Environmental awareness, biodiversity
2) Develop Theories of Social Computing
• How do networks evolve? Can we predict areas of
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growth, stability, decline, infections, disruptions?
Can we guide intervention to stop terrorists,
slow epidemics, increase sales, promote health?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
Health & Healthcare
Energy, Education, Business Innovation
Energystar.gov
innocentive.com
Disaster Response: Wildfires
Community Safety: Abducted Children
www.ncmec.org
www.missingkids.com
www.amberalert.gov
Biodiversity: Encyclopedia of Life
eol.org
UN Millennium Development Goals
To be achieved by 2015
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development
Vision: Social Computing
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Health, energy, education, business innovation
• Disaster response, community safety
• Environmental awareness, biodiversity
2) Develop Theories of Social Computing
• How do networks evolve? Can we predict areas of
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growth, stability, decline, infections, disruptions?
Can we guide intervention to stop terrorists,
slow epidemics, increase sales, promote health?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
Network Theories: Evolution models
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Random, preferential attachment, triangles…
Monotonic, bursty, 3-phase…
Power law for degree (hubs & indexes)
Small-world property
Forest fire, spreading activation …
Matures, collapses, decays, fragments, …
Watts & Strogatz, Nature 1998; Barabasi, Science 1999, 2009;
Newman, Phys.Rev.Lett 2002
Kumar, Novak & Tomkins, KDD2006
Leskovec, Faloutsos & Kleinberg, TKDD2007
Motivations for participation
• Fear, imminent threat
(Rogers, 1975)
• Revenge, response to tragedy, guilt
(Hanson, 2008)
• Egoism, altruism, collectivism, principlism
(Batson, Ahmad & Tseng, 2002)
Stages of participation
Wikipedia & Reporting sites
• Reader
• First-time Contributor
(Legitimate Peripheral Participation)
• Returning Contributor
• Frequent Contributor
Preece, Nonnecke & Andrews, CHB2004
Forte & Bruckman, SIGGROUP2005; Hanson, 2008
Porter: Designing for the Social Web, 2008
Vassileva, 2002, 2005; Ling et al., JCMC 2005; Rashid et al., CHI2006
From Reader to Leader:
Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation
All
Users
Reader
Contributor
Collaborator
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Leader
Preece & Shneiderman, AIS Trans. Human-Computer Interaction1 (1), July 2009
aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol1/iss1/5/
Vision: Social Computing
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Health, energy, education, business innovation
• Disaster response, community safety
• Environmental awareness, biodiversity
2) Develop Theories of Social Computing
• How do networks evolve? Can we predict areas of
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growth, stability, decline, infections, disruptions?
Can we guide intervention to stop terrorists,
slow epidemics, increase sales, promote health?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
Technology Infrastructure
• Platform & browser independent
• Desktop, Web, Mobile
• Petabytes, Tera-contribs, Giga-collabs
• 24/7, 100% uptime, secure, private
• Universal access & usability
• Trust, empathy, responsibility
• Enables leaders to manage activity
• Supports continuous improvement
Network Visualization: Research & Control
SocialAction: Systematic Yet Flexible
Preparation
• Own the problem & define the schedule
• Data cleaning & conditioning
• Handle missing & uncertain data
• Extract subsets & link to related information
Perer & Shneiderman, IUI 2008; CGA 2009
SocialAction: Overview of Global Jihad Network
Filtering by Betweenness (“Gatekeepers”)
Social Action: HealthCare Directors
Social Action: PubMed related refs
SocialAction: Senate Vote Patterns
Perer & Shneiderman, CHI 2008
NodeXL:
Network Overview for Discovery & Exploration in Excel
www.codeplex.com/nodexl
casci.umd.edu/NodeXL_Teaching
Fashionistas:
Size = Mentions
Edge thickness = Ties
Color = Country
(Kate Lanahan)
Subaru Owners: Groups and Bridges
(Thakar)
Weight Watchers Support Group
Size = Weight loss
Color = Questions answered
(Theresa Burlas)
Size = Weight loss
Color = Membership length
Iran Election: Massive Dispersal
giladlotan.org/viz/iranelection/
Social Media Analytics
Telligent/Analytics (Harvest)
Sentiment Analysis
User Types
Influencer, Answerer, Originator, Spectator,
Asker, Connector, Commenter, Moderator
Autonomy Interwoven/Social Media
Understand the meaning of social media, user generated content,
customer sentiment, context and behavior - even video
Discover new customer segments, trends, and business
opportunities from this understanding
Optimize customer engagement, navigation, offers, conversion rates,
and customer value
Vision: Social Computing
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Health, energy, education, business innovation
• Disaster response, community safety
• Environmental awareness, biodiversity
2) Develop Theories of Social Computing
• How do networks evolve? Can we predict areas of
•
growth, stability, decline, infections, disruptions?
Can we guide intervention to stop terrorists,
slow epidemics, increase sales, promote health?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
Road ahead
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Much work to be done
Difficult to attain all our goals
But we can make important contributions
Road ahead
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Much work to be done
Difficult to attain all our goals
But we can make important contributions
Shift public policy
• National Institutes for Social Computing
• National Initiative for Social Participation
Change our research community
Restructure our academic curricula
www.cs.umd.edu/hcil